Met begins charging out-of-staters

Museum hopes for smooth transition to admission fee

By Robin Pogrebin, The New York Times

Published
11:17 pm EST, Thursday, March 1, 2018

New York

In the two months since the Metropolitan Museum of Art announced a momentous change for visitors — charging $25 to those who live outside New York state, instead of letting them pay what they wish — the museum has gone to great lengths to prepare for Day 1.

But as the new mandatory fee went into effect Thursday morning, it is far from clear whether there will be chaos or business as usual in the Met's Great Hall entry area; whether people will agreeably pay the required admission; and whether impassioned opponents will come to accept it.

"It's like taking the jacket off a poor person," artist Ai Weiwei said of the new fee, which was announced in January. "I will never go to the Metropolitan. Am I calling for a boycott? No. But I myself will not go."

Daniel Weiss, the Met's president and chief executive officer, has made a concerted effort to explain why the new fee is necessary to bolster one of the world's largest and most renowned cultural institutions. The proportion of museum-goers who pay a "suggested" amount has declined from 63 percent to 17 percent over the past 13 years, even as Met attendance has surged from 4.7 million to 7 million.

The Met has also been girding for the logistical challenges of checking proof of residence without segregating people in a separate line as if they were second-class visitors. (Students in the tri-state region don't have to pay the new fee, and the ticket is good for three days of admission to the Met, the Met Breuer and the Cloisters).

"We worked very hard for it not to be bumpy," Weiss said. "There will always be glitches because we're implementing a new policy."

The most visible change at the Met is the 14 kiosks in the Great Hall. People can purchase full-price tickets there or from roaming staff members with iPads. Additional staff and volunteers are on hand to answer questions and direct visitors to ticket locations, and there is a new brochure that explains the fee policy (translated into 11 languages).

More than 2,000 Met employees — including members of the security, retail and ticketing staffs — have been trained in customer service techniques as well as communications and technical issues.

New signs have been installed at entrances to the Met, the Met Breuer and the Cloisters, and on the Met's 82nd Street steps, to welcome and guide visitors, as well as to explain the admissions policy: "New York State residents and NY, NJ and CT students, the amount you pay is up to you."

In the beginning, the Met will not be rigid about its new policy; those who show up without identification that validates their New York state residency will be asked to bring it next time. If people fail to pay over time, however, the Met will have to get tougher about implementation.

"We always have the option to make the policy more stringent," Weiss said. "If people choose not to support it, we can always become stricter."

Still, as the policy goes into effect, there are likely to be some operational headaches, as well as blowback from those who see the change as a betrayal of the Met's role as a public institution. The museum was founded in 1870 in a city-owned building; 23 years later, a law providing state support to the museum mandated that its collections "shall be kept open and accessible to the public free of all charge throughout the year." In 1970, the Met instituted a suggested admission fee.

"What are we valuing in this difficult political and economic moment?" said Amanda Williams, an artist and architect based in Chicago. "And for young people, especially little black and brown bodies, they are receiving more and more messages that they don't belong."

Other responses have been more sympathetic to the Met's financial rationale, arguing that institutions all over the country are struggling to cover their costs.

"I understand that people would think it should be free, as I do," said artist Ross Bleckner. "But in reality, a museum can only squeeze so much out of the Kochs and the Sacklers and then you're on your own," he added, referring to two major donors.

"It's a symptom of a systemic problem: monetizing things that should be a right, like health care, education and, now, culture," he continued. "Why wouldn't people expect culture to catch up with the rest of it all, and the mall-ing of New York City? We will get used to it. Sad but true."